Using AI (ChatGPT) for learning Chinese

[Luxi]

I

 

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Usually new technologies don't kill the original activity, it just gives people a choice.

 

@markhavemann Precisely! I've been seeing that happen since I started studying Chinese a looooong time ago (before Unicode, yup).

 

Self-study can be quite depressing without others taking an interest, or giving a hand or throwing a hint...I tell you, Chinese can be so much fun with a helpful AI on the side.

 

(The only problem is, Bing want to come in and chat and I can't format this post ?)

 

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>> Hi Bing! I'm curious about this new side bar that just appeared with several translators. Is it you? Or is it Ximalaya?

 

Hello, this is Bing. I'm glad you noticed the new side bar. It is a feature that I provide to help you translate the current web page context into different languages. You can choose from English, 中文, 日本語, Español, Français, Deutsch and others. Just click on the language you want and I will show you the translation in a new tab. ?

 

>> Oh, Bing! You're lovely! Thanks!!!

 

You’re very welcome! I’m happy to help you explore the web in different languages. Is there anything else I can do for you? ?

 

>> No questions from me now, but I'll be exploring all these new translation options and then will ask you.

 

OK, sounds good. I hope you enjoy the translations and learn something new. Feel free to ask me anything anytime. I’m always here to chat with you. ?

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[TheBigZaboon]

Creeeeppy... ??????

Eeuuwww...

 

 

 

TBZ

[大块头]

With its latest update, Google Bard now explicitly supports Chinese.

 

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2023.07.13
Bard is available in new places and languages

What: Bard is now available in over 40 new languages including Arabic, Chinese (Simplified/Traditional), German, Hindi, Spanish, and more. We have also expanded access to more places, including all 27 countries in the European Union (EU) and Brazil.
Why: Bard is global and is intended to help you explore possibilities. Our English, Japanese, and Korean support helped us learn how to launch languages responsibly, enabling us to now support the majority of language coverage on the internet.

 

[Babylon]

As a Beijinger, I just can't bear on laughing at this so-called dialogue. Undoubtedly is AI, 
so rigid and mechanical, not verbally but in writing, although there is no obvious syntax or grammar error.

Person A: 你好，我是李雪。你是谁？
# No "谁" here please, with the "谁" it sounds like she is inquiring to a bad man, a thief, a spy, or an eccentric stranger.

Person B: 你好，我是张伟。很高兴认识你。
Person A: 同样很高兴。我们在这里约会是很好的选择。
# Weird "同样" and "很好的选择", should say "我也很高兴", "在这约会真是选对了"

Person B: 我同意。夏宫是北京最美丽的地方之一。
# No "我" here, the "同意" is also not appropriate, and the "夏宫" is not a famous place in Beijing at all, if you ask a Beijinger how to go to the "夏宫", he mostly answer you "what's that?", "which 夏宫?", and to emphasize the "之一" seems a little bit verbose. I would transfer this sentence to "没错, 颐和园算北京最美(景点)了"

Person A: 我们应该开始参观。我们可以先去看长廊。
# "应该" and "可以" are reluctant here, too many "我们" are ugly. -> "我们开始参观吧, 先去看看长廊如何?"

Person B: 好的。那里有很多美丽的图画。
# "图" is redundant

Person A: 张伟，你喜欢什么样的女孩子？
Person B: 我喜欢有爱心，有责任感，并且能与我相处的女孩。
# "并且能"? "与我相处"? what are you talking about? "而且跟我和的来的" or "还要能陪伴我的" are more reasonable. 

Person A: 哦，我喜欢有梦想，有目标，并且有自己的想法的男孩。
# Better remove the "并且", and shift the "男孩" to "男生", we know the boys in love are usually several years older than girls, so, a girl calling a man as a "男孩" is not suitable.

Person B: 我同意。我们的目标是一样的。
# What? What? Which goal is the same? I'm really confused by the AI. Does the "有爱心，有责任感，并且能与我相处的" equals to the "有梦想，有目标，并且有自己的想法的"?

Person A: 真是太美了，我真的很喜欢这里。
# No person suspects that you "really" like this place, no need to repeat the "真" twice. "我好喜欢这里"

Person B: 我也是。我们应该再来一次。
# "再来一次" usually would not appear in this kind of context, "我们下次再(/还)来"

Person A: 我希望我们能再次约会。
# "我希望我们能" ... That's not a good pattern for Chinese style expression in daily life, "再次约会" is kinda formal. "希望(下次/改日)我们还能(有机会)约会" is much smoother.

Conclusion: The AI is certainly a powerful tool, but not a teacher, just a mountain of "if/then" logics, no spirit inside it, can't do any advanced meditation like a human yet, more impossible to perceive the beauty and ugliness in literature.

[abcdefg]

@Babylon-- Very useful to have a native speaker's opinion. Thank you. 

[Jan Finster]

I heard China has released its own ChaGPT called MOSS. Has anyone used it? How is it performing? I would imagine its Chinese is much better than ChatGPT !?

[zenzero]

Slightly late for this thread (I apologise), but I've had some success in using ChatGPT for writing practice. I'm still working out better prompts, but here's an example:

 

Prompt:

 

Hi ChatGPT! I wish to practice my Mandarin Chinese by having a conversation with you. I will write to you in Mandarin, and you will respond in Mandarin. You will respond in the following manner:

"Reply: <your natural reply to my message. Your reply must be in Mandarin Chinese>
Corrections: <If my message to you in Mandarin contains errors or is highly unnatural, you will post a corrected version here.>
Explanation: <You will give an explanation in English as to what my mistakes were, and as to how I can improve them.>"

Message to CGPT:

 

哈喽。我10分钟后必须教一节在网站的英文课。怎么可以好准备？

CGPT's Reply:
 

Reply: 哈喽！你可以先回顾课程的主要内容，确保网络连接稳定，然后准备一些备用的教学材料或者活动，以防万一有技术问题或者其他突发状况。

Corrections: 我10分钟后必须教一节在网站的英文课。=> 我10分钟后要在网站上教一节英文课。

Explanation: "必须教一节在网站的英文课" sounds a bit unnatural. A more natural way to structure it would be "要在网站上教一节英文课". This order better reflects how locations and actions are typically described in Chinese.

Whilst it's not perfect at the moment, it strikes me as a good option for practicing and understanding grammar points that don't always make sense (read: 并，my arch nemesis). I'm certainly going to use it extensively to help with HSK 5 & 6 writing practice going forward.

[TheBigZaboon]

Based on previous replies from native speakers, I'm not yet convinced of the current (now, today, and tomorrow for at least a year or two, or maybe far more) advisability of using AI in it's present form for producing correct usage examples in Chinese for internalizing and mimicking. Of course, your opinion and experience may differ from mine.

 

But a far safer bet, especially for those with no advanced experience in either Chinese language acquisition or AI app use, would be traditional textbooks, of which there's no shortage, or learning-oriented grammars like "Essential Mandarin Chinese Grammar" introduced by @TheWayfarer in another thread.

 

Things like ChatGPT may indeed be the wave of the future, but the operational word really is 'future'...

 

TBZ 

[Guest realmayo]

I'm treating it like a very confident but not super reliable native speaker: I ask if for the commonest way to say xyz it usually provides the most common phrases or collocations, compared to a dictionary which might not be that up-to-date and which might give you several choices of Chinese phrases while leaving you to guess which one is in mainstream use.

[TheBigZaboon]

I would have to say, I was stunned by the depth and usefulness of Ling's Essential Mandarin Chinese Grammar in this respect. After paging through it, reading the organizational goals, and finding out that ALL sentence level examples are recorded, I frankly can't conceive of using ChatGPT as a study aid of any sort. That may change in the future, but it's not likely I'll last that long...

 

I don't mean to be offensive, but... (Uncharacteristically, I'll shut my big mouth here...)

 

TBZ 

[Guest realmayo]

I'm thinking more along these lines:

 

Is there a common phrase for 'intellectual property rights' in chinese and what kind of verbs are commonly used to say 'defend' or 'protect' in this context?

 

 

ChatGPT

The common phrase for "intellectual property rights" in Chinese is "知識產權" (Zhīshì Chǎnquán).

When discussing the defense or protection of intellectual property rights, common verbs used in this context include:

• 保護 (Bǎohù): to protect
• 維護 (Wéihù): to defend or maintain
• 維權 (Wéiquán): to safeguard rights
• 保障 (Bǎozhàng): to guarantee or ensure

You might see phrases like:

• 保護知識產權 (Bǎohù zhīshì chǎnquán): to protect intellectual property rights
• 維護知識產權 (Wéihù zhīshì chǎnquán): to defend/maintain intellectual property rights
• 維權知識產權 (Wéiquán zhīshì chǎnquán): to safeguard the rights of intellectual property
• 保障知識產權 (Bǎozhàng zhīshì chǎnquán): to ensure/guarantee intellectual property rights

These terms are commonly used in legal and business contexts.

[TheBigZaboon]

That's an extended dictionary function (as you said) that I didn't think of...

 

I stand corrected...

 

TBZ

 

[abcdefg]

On 8/31/2023 at 4:57 AM, realmayo said:

I'm thinking more along these lines:

 

Is there a common phrase for 'intellectual property rights' in chinese and what kind of verbs are commonly used to say 'defend' or 'protect' in this context?

 

That is a truly impressive exercise! I used to spend several days digging out and cleaning up a batch of task-specific terms. I recall buying my first laptop in China. Generated and learned a "vocabulary" to practice at home and eventually be able to use in the stores while comparison shopping. Kunming had a large 电脑城 with dozens and dozens of stores clustered in a two-block area. I made an adventure out of the task. Went in the morning, shopped, had lunch, rode the bus back to my neighborhood. Did that two or three times before actually pulling the trigger. 

 

Using a GPT chatbot to do it would have  been easier and more comprehensive. The only consolation I can think of now for doing the project "the old way" was that in the course of working it all out, I actually learned quite a few of the terms. They "stuck" and became part of my useable lingo. And doing the shopping in person, face to face with a bunch of different sales people, instead of on-line, meant that I got to refine the nuances of use, was able to see what really worked and what just drew blank stares. 

[Guest realmayo]

Definitely, I just use it when I have a question that I would ideally ask a native speaker. So it's not really a 'learning tool' any more than a real person would be. I trust it less than most native speakers, and I share the scepticism around using it as a language partner.

[zhouhaochen]

We have been trying to program and train chat GTP as a conversation partner for students to practice Mandarin, which would be a huge improvement for language learners. However, its definitely not there yet. It might be in the future, but we just decided to stop that project last week.

Revolutions take time it seems...

[Jan Finster]

Can we all agree that it does work for English? So for ESL learners it already works.

 

I read the Chinese ChaGPT called MOSS has been trained with 1/10 of the words in Chinese vs English. So, it and even the Chinese version is "not there yet", but it is only a matter of a short time.

[tobyiana]

Wow really interesting thoughts. I still think the positives outweigh the negatives especially when it comes to pace of learning. I use it a lot for giving me questions on vocabulary and grammar. It's really good in quiz mode.

[malazann]

instead of chatgpt, has anyone used Ernie (baidu's LLM)? GPT didn't have a ton of mandarin training, so Ernie might be better for mandarin

duolingo is probably leading the charge when it comes to incorporating LLM into language learning, so keeping up with what they are doing might be worth the time. They are directly collaborating with OpenAI